Author: Isa C.

I am a Christian, a wife, a homeschool mom, a writer, a fitness junkie, and a conservative. And have long-winded theories about how all these things are interrelated and vitally important to our Christian faith. I'm also just really into this stuff.

For the last few weeks, the strange story of Jussie Smollett being beaten in the freezing streets of Chicago at 2 AM has raised a lot of eyebrows.

That is, from people who do not perpetuate the narrative of a dystopian, racist, Trump’s America that was so well-served by the so-called “modern-day lynching.”

The story instantly had several questionable features, and, sure enough, police seemed to believe so as well.

ICYMI, Smollett is an actor on the television show “Empire” (if you’ve never heard of him, you’re not alone, I hadn’t either) who claimed that on January 29th he was assaulted by two men wearing MAGA hats in Chicago.

In the middle of that polar vortex that brought historically low temps to the midwest and northeast.

At 2 AM.

He claimed the men, whom he knew were white somehow and also recognize him even though in -9 temperatures its hard to imagine any human would have their face exposed, much less at 2 AM, shouted, “This is MAGA country, n*****!”

Several more problems right there, not the least of which being that Chicago isn’t exactly “MAGA country.”

Smollett says that the assailants then put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him.

To wrap things up, when the assault abruptly stopped, Smollett says, he walked home. Security footage from his building shows him, with the sandwich he had just purchased at Subway still in his hands despite having been allegedly assaulted, walking past security, again, despite having just been allegedly assaulted.

When police arrived at his apartment to take his statement hours later, he still had the noose around his neck.

So when the news broke that this assault had happened, there were several skeptics. Those that could not be included among them were, naturally, the vast majority of the mainstream media and several 2020 candidates, many of whom have yet to respond with the same fervor now that this has happened:

Yesterday morning, Smollett turned himself in to Chicago police after they managed to track down the two men, brothers of Nigerian heritage, who Smollett paid to stage the attack.

Smollett, who police say staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his $1 million paychecks for his performance on “Empire,” now faces several felony charges. He is now out on bail.

So. If you’re a white Trump supporter, there is no doubt this story has you pretty offended. Smollett not only just made a mockery of a very painful and violent period of our nation’s history, he also managed to crudely slander a wide swath of Americans by implying Trump voters are just roving the streets of America’s city at night, noose and bleach in hand, waiting for any famous gay, black man to come along to assault.

This is upsetting, I get this, and it is no small matter to me.

But something that keeps tugging at my heart strings is the burning question: what kind of state is Jussie’s soul in that he thought this was a good idea?

This incident speaks volumes, both on the state of anti-Trump culture and the level of insanity it has reached.

But it also speaks to Jussie’s spiritual state, and it is not a good one.

I can’t speak to Jussie’s heart, and he does have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by the courts, of course.

But the evidence seems pretty solid that this man just faked his own hate crime and lied through his teeth about it for weeks and is now facing hard prison time because of it.

All because he allegedly wanted a raise on his $1 million “Empire” salary or, according to some accounts, his character was being written out of “Empire.”

What is wrong with your moral compass at this point? How far has our culture fallen that he knew this would be eaten up, and clearly seemed to be counting on not even getting caught?

His career has exploded now, but not in the way he had hoped.

Fame and fortune; neither are inherently good. Jussie has infamy now, and the fortune he was already earning likely drove him to want more so desperately he just absolutely destroyed his life and career over it (the footage of him being swarmed by reporters after being released on bond is particularly poignant.)

All this points to one, very obvious conclusion for the sad case of Jussie Smollet: he, like every single person on this earth, desperately needs Jesus.

Fame and fortune and sympathy can never fulfill the way Christ can. They can eat us alive and blind us to reality as they did in Jussie’s case.

Don’t ever let the enemy trick you into thinking anything in this world satisfies you fully. You’ll always want more. Material things and earthly praise will always fall short, they can often lead you astray, and will frequently let you down.

Please join me in praying for Jussie. My heart honestly aches with compassion for him and, as a conservative, I should not feel ashamed to say it.

You can think that someone is very, very wrong and also wish for them to find their way to the Cross. In fact, I think we should feel this way as Christians.

He is a lost soul in need of Christ and we need to pray that he finds Him.

Because here’s the really scary truth…Smollett just created a personal hell for himself that nothing on earth can remedy, truly.

In the same way only Christ can satisfy, only Christ can rescue him from the bonds he just tightened around himself.

What Jussie did was worthy of mockery, of scorn, of loathing, of outrage.

The pervasive leftist term “toxic masculinity” has been floating around again in the wake of the highly controversial Gillette commercial attacking so-called “toxic masculinity.”

While I tend to reject the modern, SJW attitudes towards masculinity and embrace the things about men that are very much different from the way most women are, there is a cold, harsh reality that Christians need to face about the idea of “toxic masculinity.”

First of all, it’s important to separate “masculinity” from “toxic masculinity;” many on the left seem to decry both, or decry one and ignore the other.

I think Allie Stuckey summed up an excellent refutation to “toxic masculinity” here, and I agree with her fully. She also manages to cut at the core of why the ideas of doing away with “toxic masculinity” are so, well, toxic: they’re pushing back against masculinity as a whole, not just the toxic parts.

Last year, The Blaze reported on a “toxic masculinity training” program that a feminist professor was recommending for children as young as kindergarten, and, as a mother, this, of course, incensed me.

I think that, understandably so, many conservatives and Christians are under the impression that “toxic masculinity” is always synonymous with masculinity in general and there’s certainly a good case to be made here, as Allie has.

Masculinity is not toxic. Masculinity is as beautiful as feminity, and both reflect the image of God that we were made in.

In the words of Nancy Pelosi, who, stunningly, does not seem to believe this about the unborn but does believe this about MS-13 members, “every person has a spark of divinity in them.”

However, the definition The Blaze used of what exactly “toxic masculinity” is actually humbled me a little bit.

Here it is, from Tolerance.org:

Toxic masculinity is a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured, while supposedly “feminine” traits—which can range from emotional vulnerability to simply not being hypersexual—are the means by which your status as “man” can be taken away.

Biblical Christians: does this seem like ideal male behavior to you?

The short answer is, and we have to admit this to ourselves, no, it’s not.

This is the world’s idea of masculinity. This is not necessarily God’s idea of masculinity.

First of all, while the natural order of the family is established in the Bible with the husband and father at the helm, and it is taken for granted that men are typically leaders and soldiers, the biblical model of “a real man” is one that, well, adheres to biblical morals as a whole.

Think of the Book of Proverbs; it’s full of admonishments for men specifically to be wise, patient, industrious, responsible, strong, steadfast, faithful, and most of all, to fear the Lord.

Men are also, most famously, called to love their wives as they love the church, and to not provoke their children to anger.

Never are men told to beat their wives, have, um, whizzing contests with other men, procure as many women as possible, or pursue status. In fact, there are several examples in the Bible of men being told not to do these things.

Pride, lust, and violence, which are characteristics of the “toxic masculinity” definition addresses, are most definitely sinful, godless behavior that will not lead a man towards a closer relationship with God or even an objectively moral life.

Here’s the thing: these aren’t exclusively male characteristics. Yes, there is a culture among certain men to strive for status, engage in violence, and copulate with as many members of the opposite sex as possible. Like, you know, teenage boys and ne’re do wells.

Sinful men.

And this is not only something the church should be addressing, it is something that the church does address, and not only that, but the Holy, divinely inspired Word of God itself.

But.

Women can be entirely toxic as well.

Men cultivate this type of behavior because they are fallen, sinful men, but guess what–women are fallen and sinful as well. And it doesn’t matter how anyone one on earth, including all the men in your life, behave, if you have not repented of your sins as well.

The progressive left, as well exemplified in the Gillette commercial, seems to constantly point to Biblical principles of kindness, gentleness, decency, respectability, as somehow new concepts.

Here’s the thing: for decades progressive feminists have decried the ideas of chivalry and yet somehow also decried the results of a lack of chivalry in our culture and I soldily believe that, frankly, they just don’t like what they got when they kicked decent men of the pedestal they once held in our society.

It’s not masculinity or femininity that’s toxic, it’s our sinful fallen state that can only be restored in Christ our Savior.

We need to be careful not to defend sinful behavior or downplay abuse or assault simply because the left brings them up. We need to, however, be realistic about what these things are, and also how often women engage in equally sinful things.

Let’s not let the terms of the world confuse us, it’s God’s truth that we defend and nothing else and He created both men and women, in their different, complementary, and beautiful characteristics.

I believe firmly in biblical complementarianism, that is, that husbands are in authority over their wives and wives are called to submit to them in all things.

I think many, many workplaces are suited only for men, and that, despite having a great amount of respect for women who brave these jobs, things like the infantry (the military as a whole really), police force, and fire departments are no place for women.

I think that modern feminism is one of the worst things to happen to modern, Western society, but believe passionately, rather, in chivalry, that is, that society should uphold the value that men ought to protect, defend, and provide for women and children.

I think, whenever possible, the best thing for everyone in the family, mom included, is for her to be at home with the children, attending to the majority of her family’s needs herself.

Have I demonstrated my fundie street cred enough?

I hope so because if you’re as fundamentalist as I am, you might not like what I have to say next:

It’s perfectly fine for a woman to work and earn for her family.

(Cue the record scratch).

Legalistic Womanhood vs. Biblical Womanhood

A few years ago, I was very surprised to discover among fundamentalist complementarians like myself the attitude that it was wrong for women to work at all.

It didn’t surprise me that they thought women should be home with their children, putting their hearts and souls into being a Holy Spirit inspired helpmeet, after all, I felt the same way and still do.

It surprised me that, in the case of one extreme example, they literally argued against Scripture to defend their position that women shouldn’t earn money.

Proverbs 31, anyone?

I don’t need to share the time-honored passages from one of the most well-known examples of biblical womanhood, you all know it well.

And perhaps it’s dawning on you as I write this that…homegirl was a hustler.

She earned money, from multiple sources, and is often described as a savvy businesswoman and successful entrepreneur, rightly so.

The Truth About the Proverbs 31 Woman

The thing about the Proverbs 31 woman is that, well, she saw well to the ways of her household.

She organized her life so that her career did not interfere with her family and her household’s needs.

The simple truth of the Bible often has leaps and bounds over any stick-in-the-mud cultural Christian belief that plagues the deepest corners of fundamentalist social media.

We are taught a lie in the church that living a certain modern definition of a godly lifestyle, i.e. “housewife”, a woman who does not work to earn money and stays at home, is the same as being a “keeper at home” (Titus 2) or a godly wife.

Using Godly Discernment

Here’s the thing: the apostle Paul would not have told us that “all things are lawful, but not all things edify” if it wasn’t, well, true, and this is exactly what working for a woman is like.

Earning money for your family is perfectly lawful, but it might not always edify, as anyone who feels the same way I do about modern feminism can likely easy identify.

Women who are unable to truly give their all to their families because they’re absorbed in the career. Women who are more likely to submit to their boss than their husband. Women who wear the pants in the family because they’ve been raised to pursue a career, rather than cultivate a thriving marriage or raise a family.

Here’s the dirty little secret about some submission teachers (who shall remain nameless) who preach godly womanhood: they will encourage a woman to challenge her husband if he wants her to work.

First of all, we’ve already established, from Proverbs 31, that earning money is clearly an example of godly womanhood if she has seen well to the ways of her household.

Second of all, I think it takes a particularly rebellious mind to encourage a woman to challenge her husband’s idea of what’s best for their family when it’s not outright sin (and earning money isn’t a sin, otherwise, as again, the Proverbs 31 woman illustrates.)

Women who pontificate regularly on how godly it is to submit to their husbands to the exact thing they preach against when they encourage women to undermine their husband’s decision making when it comes to whether or not women can be breadwinners too.

If righteousness comes by forsaking employment for the sake of being a housewife, then Christ died in vain.

The Bottom Line

You can absolutely still submit to your husband and see to the ways of your household and work and earn a living.

I know this well, while I am blessed to work at home rather than outside the home. In fact, I’m a better homemaker and more obedient wife (well, you’d have to ask my husband but I certainly think I am LOL) since I’ve been working, because it’s taught me the vital importance of, well, Proverbs 31 style home management.

Smart planning, daily routines and habits, and how to carefully wear many hats and spin many plates.

To me, when you look at the entire canon of Scripture, anyone who is hard-working, diligent, respectful of those in authority over them, and, most of all, who fears the Lord, is what makes a godly person.

After all, it’s not a woman who forsakes employment who is to be praised, but a woman who fears the Lord.

I have been pondering for months now the direction I want to take this blog, considering I started out with a worldview I have, in some ways, shifted away from over time.

As I have been in prayer and meditation on what, exactly, I’d like to address on this blog and how God can use my passion for writing to minister to the saints in these truly chaotic times, however, I’ve realized that while I may have outwardly changed in many ways, the spark I had within me to start this blog four years ago has only continued to kindle into a raging flame.

You see, I first sat down to write the End Times Mama blog because I felt there was a sore need for women, and particularly mothers, to pray and encourage one another in what I perceived to be days in which we were watching Bible prophecy unfold before our eyes.

And while I no longer dwell on expectations that the Antichrist will soon rise up, ironically, over time we seem to be inching closer and closer to that Day.

Here’s the thing, though: we’re always inching closer and closer to that day, even if we’re still years, decades, or even centuries away.

The End Times have been spoken of since the beginning of time.

The Times of Refreshing

I was reading Acts the other day when a certain passage struck me: when Peter is preaching in the temple shortly after the Apostles have received the Holy Spirit, he warns the Jews about the “end times,” explaining Who they have just had killed on the Cross, and what He came to do. But it struck me the way he phrased it:

Acts 3:17-22 KJV And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

The End Times Complete the Plan

The End Times aren’t just some scary time in which the whole world will go to pot. That’s not to say the world won’t go to pot; I don’t mean to gloss over the horrific events that the Holy Word of God prophecies of, that’s a topic for another day.

The End Times are simply so much more than that. They are the Great Day in which the Lord will finally bring sorely-needed Justice to this world. In which the prophecy God spoke in the Garden will be fulfilled. In which Jesus will sit on the throne and Judge the whole world.

Injustice is Rife in This World

There is no doubt this world is scary, particularly for mothers. It seems like almost every day we hear about more child trafficking, pedophilia, mass murder of Christians, cold-hearted SJWs calling for the viewpoints of those they disagree with to be eliminated.

Just a quick perusal of the mainstream media displays a clear-cut agenda that trickles down from the “globalists”, the hand full of vastly wealthy members of nepharious global governance organizations that routinely undermine American sovereignty and are dedicated to reducing the population of the globe.

You can call me a crackpot conspiracy theorist for this, by the way, but the members of groups like the United Nations and the Council on Foreign Relations have been pretty open about their radical-left views, and I can address this more at length in the future.

My point is this: it is only natural to be completely afraid in the period of history we are in, and sometimes, for some people, adding the possibility that these could be The literal End just make it scarier.

Fear ≠ Faith

Thus, End Times Mama was born, and thus, I remain dedicated to answering this call to preach faith in God’s promises during these very frightening times.

Because if we are truly in the End Times we have every reason to rejoice. God’s perfect Justice is only getting closer! The Gospel does not only give us hope in these scary times, these scary times may very well be fulfilling the entire point of the Gospel: that one day, God will judge the whole earth, and Jesus is the Ark that we need to survive.

If we have Jesus, we have nothing to fear. Our Lord said it best when He said:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 KJV)

If we believe in the End Times because we believe God’s word, then we should rejoice that they are coming. No matter how hard things get, all God wants from us is to trust His promise. As Abraham trusted he would have a child through whom the whole world would be blessed despite his wife’s infertility, we must trust that through these dark times, His Light will shine brighter than it ever has before, and all things will be restored unto Him.

So, fellow mamas, let’s take heart and encourage one another in the End Times!

Perhaps, if you are a modern millennial-era human, you have been on the social media and seen a post or two about a certain health diet and how it is literally the healthiest way to eat.

Vegan, paleo, keto, all-fermented, Whole 30, etc., etc., etc.

If you are at all concerned about your health, you’ve probably watched videos or even researched these diets for yourself and thought “ohmygosh I need to be doing this diet.”

You plan out all the amazing healthy superfoods you’re going to eat, you buy sauerkraut and alternative milk or maybe some tofu and almond butter and just having them in your grocery bag on the way home makes you feel healthier and more vibrant.

But sooner or later, the crushing weight of your whole life, small children, husbands to feed, grocery money to budget, and the fact that gluten is delicious come crashing in on you and you either can’t stick with the diet or you never even start it in the first place, instead spending time daydreaming about the glorious, all-healing, superfood-packed, divinely revealed health diet you will go on.

One of these days…

OK, maybe this isn’t you, but this was definitely me, and for many years. The problem was, though, that while I had a good grasp of what constituted “healthy” foods and was aware of many different types of health diets, I was confused and overwhelmed as to how to apply these to my life.

I constantly see a lot of these misperceptions about health and diet out there and, as Biblical Christians, I think it’s important to take a step back, a deep breath, and think about diet and nutrition with a little more Grace and plain practicality.

Here’s what was wrong with how I was thinking, and what I have learned over the past year:

We Live in a Fallen World

Bam, bingo, jackpot, this is it–the reason for so many of life’s problems. Ok, actually, literally all of life’s problems, if you have a Biblical worldview.

We gain weight, get bad skin, get eczema, asthma, hormone imbalances, cancer, or any sickness, not to mention die because we live in a fallen world affected by sin.

Our bodies, like the food we eat, are beautiful, amazing creations, hand-designed and formed by the Creator God, Lord of the Universe. But all creation is fallen.

This means our bodies and our food sources are imperfect, which leads me to the most important bottom line we all need to face when it comes to health and diet: there is no perfect diet.

I could end this blog post right here, of course, but next comes the best part:

There Are Many Different Ways to “Eat Right”

See, the quest for the perfect diet is just like the quest for the perfect life in general. It all boils down to the beautiful dichotomy of Christian life: we will always be imperfect in these mortal bodies, and yet we are constantly and consistently perfected in Christ.

In the same way, while we live in a fallen creation, it is a beautiful creation and the fingerprints of God’s perfect design is still everywhere.

There are so many wonderful foods out there that are so nourishing and healing for our bodies, and we as humans made in God’s image are capable of discovering details about and utilizing the wonders of creation to heal and improve (to a point) our bodies.

There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about which diet is “best” but the truth is, which diet is right for you is a lot like a post-Cross Christian walk as well:

We Are All Unique

We are all individuals, and just as our walk with the Lord will look different from someone else’s, our own personal relationship with food and the types of foods that are healing and beneficial for our bodies is going to change person to person.

This can be very technical: you might not be able to tolerate a type of food that is incredibly beneficial to someone else’s health, or any overall type of eating, macro balance, or way of dividing up portion sizes might be either really beneficial for you or not.

However, the formation good habits and developing the self-control necessary to change something as important as the way we eat every day is very psychological and spiritual, so you need to take more into account than simply “eating healthy foods.” There’s a very simple physical reason for this as well:

Physics Still Applies

At the end of the day, when it comes to weight loss at least, we tend to view “healthy foods” as foods that “help you lose weight”, but in reality, and technically, according to tried and tested scientific research, losing and gaining weight comes down to calories. God created a world with certain rules to how physical matter behaves, and this can be applied to weight loss.

There is no one food that “makes” you gain or lose weight any faster or slower than any other food, there are only foods that have either more or less calories, and the amount of overall calories you have in your body dictates how much mass you will put on or lose.

That said, again, there are many ways to eat less calories if you want to lose weight, some much, much, much better than others, but what works for you will still not necessarily be what works for someone else and–this is a big one–won’t necessarily be what someone else deems “healthy”.

There can be a bit of witch-hunt mentality when it comes to certain foods like gluten, grains, dairy, meat, even sugar, but if you’re trying to find a sustainable and healthy way to eat and can’t seem to shake a certain habit, you might do much better overall by allowing yourself to keep eating that type of food. Or not. Perhaps cutting all problem foods out together will be what works best for you! Clearly, I can’t stress enough how different each individual will be.

Which leads me to my next point:

Don’t Be a Health Pharisee

Let’s face it: one of the reasons we get sucked into the appeal of different health diets is that the people sharing them believe they are the only good diet. This is by no means a rule and I know plenty of people who eat in a certain style who totally understand that it’s what’s worked for them and that other people might find something else to be effective.

When something works for you, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s the only thing that will work for everyone, or, on the flipside, if we’re too legalistic with ourselves about the way we eat, we can throw our hands up and forsake all healthy eating because it seems way too hard.

This definitely happened to me far too often before I found my health diet groove.

The Pharisee mentality is thinking that there is a point of perfection when it comes to our works, and that includes the way we eat.

Again, there are many, many ways to be healthy, but no one perfect way to eat. In the same way a Christian woman feels called to be modest and won’t wear miniskirts or bikinis, but an adherent to works-based Islam might cover herself in a burka and rarely leave her house, you can cut bad foods out of your life for good reasons or you might start making your own law about different kinds of foods.

As with anything, let the Holy Spirit guide you and cast aside expectations of perfection, striving for Christian sanctification instead. You definitely can’t do it by your own power, so turn to Him instead so that when you make changes, you know it’s for your own good rather than you trying to be good, if that makes sense.

I’ll write more on this soon, but the way of eating that ended up being successful for me was flexible dieting, which doesn’t restrict any one food but only tracks calories and macros. Again I’ll expand more on why this worked for me spiritually, psychologically, and physiologically, but what strikes me the most about this manner of eating is how much it mirrors my walk.

I needed to learn that I will never be perfect, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I can constantly be perfected in Christ, and develop the right balance of self-discipline and grace to achieve my fitness and health goals.

My diet is very far from perfect, just like me. But I can now confidently say it is healthy. It might not be how you eat and a lot of health snobs would turn their nose up on the snack I had while writing this, but I feel fully confident knowing I’m fully covered in His love and grace, doing the best I can in the time on this earth to display fruits of His spirit and make the most of this mortal body.

Since I am introducing this blog as a fresh new blog, I thought I would take a few minutes to explain exactly what it’s about.

In short, it’s about me, and my views, and my life, and the passionate love I have for Jesus and the Word of God and how it tells us we should live our lives, and the direction it tells us the world is going.

The End Times

Ok, so yeah, obviously I created this blog with the presupposition that we are in the end times, and I still believe this. I don’t know exactly when “IT” will happen, I don’t know exactly how much prophecy has been fulfilled, I do however know what hasn’t been fulfilled yet. I also know, most important of all, that Jesus told His believers 2,000 years ago to be prepared for the Day of the Lord so that I shall do.

I’m definitely interested in self-reliance, survivalism, and end times prophecy, but the end times have come to mean something much more internally spiritual over the last few years. Namely, the spiritual state of always being prepared for His return. The Christian walk is all-or-nothing, so you’re either ready to meet Jesus and keeping oil in your lamp for His return, or you’re not. Plain and simple.

These days can be very scary to be a parent, and when I first had babies, I was constantly worried about what would happen to them if we went through the great tribulation in our lifetime.

The truth is, it is possible at any point in time to go through tribulation, and many mothers since the history of time have had to watch their children suffer and even die. Abraham typifies the ultimate spiritual sacrifice we must make in his willingness to sacrifice Isaac to God–knowing full well God would still fulfill His promise that Abraham’s seed would be bountiful through Isaac. A lot of people miss the point of that story.

We need to trust the Lord’s promises to us and to our children. A few years ago, He spoke to me that no matter what, He would keep me and my children, and that nothing physical could compare to the glory He would reveal to us.

The Calling of Homemaking

That being said, the daily grind of Christian parenting often involves much more temporal challenges than the crippling existential fear of facing the end times as parents. Haha.

Because I am a very ideological Christian and former feminist and leftist, I feel very strongly that parenting, marriage, and homemaking are all Biblical callings that we must address as such. Motherhood, homemaking, and being a wife are not oppressive, they are wonderful and fulfilling ways to participate in the Body of Christ. They are also incredibly functional roles to play in a thriving society, and we have seen our society suffer immensely as women try to fill the role of men in society while expecting no change to their cherished status as the nurturers and caretakers of society.

Sorry, there I go getting super heady again. More on that in many future blogs.

My point is that learning how to keep house, raise children, have a thriving marriage, and, basically, manage modern adulting (which, let’s face it, is hard even when you’re single) is hard. Dang hard. I’m pretty passionate about household management because I’m an avid student of it. So, this is definitely going to be your average mom blog as well, in the context, however, that housewifery is an incredibly vital part of being a Christian woman and mother.

Conservative Philosophy and Politics

My number one philosophical dedication is to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God contained in the pages of the Holy Bible. That being said, gosh darnit I’m an American Christian and I wholeheartedly believe that while outrageously imperfect, our country was founded on the unique belief that our rights and value come from God, and not from the government.

Given I believe that absolute morality is defined by God Himself and not the government, I do appreciate living in the United States and feel pretty passionately about the Constitution being upheld. At times a hobby, at times a source of righteous anger and indignation, politics, the culture war, and feuding ideologies fascinate me, and, granted I’m a writer, evoke many passionately expressed words. I am a proud conservative Constitutionalist and not afraid to say so.

So in short, I’ll definitely be ranting about politics here as well, and possibly working on some news-in-five-minutes type content for busy moms on either Facebook or Instagram.

Homeschool

I almost posted this without including my passion for homeschool. I am a six-day-creationist, Bible-literalist, gun-totin’, liberty-loving American Christian, I do happen to homeschool and that is a huge part of my life.

I also (remember, I said this would be an average mom blog!) love to make printables for my homeschool and will be sharing many details of the journey I am on to home educate my children and raise them up in the proverbial way they should go.

Health and Fitness

And finally, my third passion that I hope to address on this blog is that of health and fitness. The gym is my happy place, and I’ve grown increasingly interested in weight management and fitness nutrition this year.

Coming from the background of being, ok, a total hippie for basically all of my life, I am really excited to share more about fitness nutrition from a holistic, real-food-based standpoint, since I am very opposed to processed foods and have lots to say about modern food production and the obesity epidemic in our country and how it’s basically been designed to destroy….OK I won’t get super heady again. You get the point. I can pontificate on all that later.

So, there you have it. My new blog plan for the reborn End Times Mama. Faith, commentary, and lifestyle. Now let’s see if I can pull off the crazy fusion of ranting conservative moralist, home organization fanatic, and annoying fitness buff all in one.

I am a Constitutional conservative who voted for Trump, believe in the Second Amendment, and am fed up and sick of the left’s identity politics and the culture wars.

I am also a native to California, I have brown hair, O- blood type, I’m short, a fan of bluegrass, I don’t like spicy foods, and I am incredibly fond of watching British costume dramas when I’m laid up in bed with a cold.

These are aspects of who I am as a person in the world in its current state, but they’re not where my true identity lies. If America perished entirely tomorrow and all the ideas on which it was founded completely, my world would certainly be shaken up but my worldview would not be altered.

All this is to say, I have strong opinions about our culture and our government, but they are all second of all to the views that define me in Christ. And in Christ, I believe that it is my sole duty as a Christian to shine His light in the world and place Him above all other things.

This is a constant battle, to be sure.

Everything from the outrage I feel at some aspects of leftist ideology to the defiance of my 4-year-old when he is once again instructed to put his pants back on threaten to interfere with my relationship with the Lord.

Although there are often aspects of righteous anger at leftist ideology as something that directly sets itself up in opposition to the Word of God that it is my duty to defend, and my 4-year-old must certainly learn to obey his mother’s authority and wear pants, how I react to these things can either come from the flesh or be guided by the Holy Spirit.

I will fully admit to you I most commonly tend to react in the flesh, but I do pray daily for the Holy Spirit to play a bigger role in how I handle the temptations my flesh is exposed to in every aspect of my life.

And trust me, while sanctification is very much a process, He does answer.

Something He has put on my heart lately is how important it is to remember Ephesians 6:12, a verse that in my opinion ought to define the worldview of every single believer in Christ:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. (Ephesians 6:12 KJV)

As Christians, in the raging culture war and increasingly hostile political environment of the United States and the Western world, I believe we are often genuinely called to respond and be a voice for absolute truth and morality. Issues like abortion, sexual immorality, the natural family, and the prevalence of paganism and the occult in our culture all require our vocal response, in my humble opinion, especially as Christians are constantly lured towards adapting their views to the world’s morality on these issues rather than the Biblical view.

But we must never lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day this is all a spiritual battle. The people who we are often called to speak against are deceived, by spiritual forces that are utterly determined to undermine the knowledge of God.

That’s it. This isn’t hocus pocus, this is a Biblical reality. There is a spiritual realm that we do not see (for a reason) that has a battle going on tangentially to our own reality and Ephesians 6:12 reminds us what our role is in it.

This is why it is so important not to hate the people we oppose, but just their views. Satan would love for us to preach the morality of the Bible from a place of condemnation and hate, and let’s be real, Christians do this sometimes.

As soon as we lose sight of the reason we might defend our own views we lose the love of Christ.

Because ultimately, the only views we should have are those of Christ. And if you’re not arguing with someone online or challenging unbelieving family members to reconsider their views for the sake of turning them to the Lord Jesus Christ, then why are you doing it?

Here’s the beauty of all this: Jesus has already guaranteed us of our victory in this spiritual battle. All Satan wants to do is deceive you any which way you can to forget this simple and glorious fact of what we have in Christ.

So next time you are tempted to battle flesh and blood, remember what the true battle is–and that it’s already been won for you.

Late afternoon yesterday, the headlines started popping up on the plethora of by-the-minute news feeds I frequent as a social media user and freelance writer. Another school shooting. 17 dead this time.

Somehow, I felt a little numb to it. Normally, I’d be inspecting the news stories and scoffing at ridiculous statements made by gun-grabbers dancing on the still-warm bodies of the deceased. But this time…I felt different.

The news media and the ever-increasing court of public opinion will be deliberating on this event until another explosive story comes along, then our attention will be diverted and we’ll be back to debating over something else.

All the while, those who lost loved ones or who lay injured in hospital beds or who will remain forever scarred and traumatized by this event will continue to live their permanently changed lives.

The Futility of Gun Control

When events like this happen, those with materialist, humanist worldviews like to try to find something concrete they can identify so as to prevent something this tragic from happening again: warning signs, gun law loopholes, types of weapons used, etc.

Pro-gun rights activists like myself are not immune to this worldview either, we usually respond with (in my humble opinion) solid arguments against gun control, reminding the ill-informed gun control fanatics that gun-free zones do nothing to deter crime and that murder is already illegal.

We respond like this because the tragedy is so horrific we have a natural instinct to find some kind of solution that is within our control. As usual, we humans are always trying to find something to control.

I stand by the arguments of pro-2A gun-rights advocates and am absolutely in favor of arming teachers and law-abiding civilians, as well as calling out two-faced Democrat politicians who call for gun control and refuse to enforce illegal firearm use by prohibited possessors.

But at the end of the day, we need to remember that one of the central arguments in favor of maintaining our nation’s great heritage of God-ordained Second Amendment liberties is also a theological argument:

People will kill no matter what.

A Sin Problem

The first murder happened with a rock. Countries with hardly any gun rights still experience violence. There was mass violence the world over long before gunpowder was invented (right here on our own soil, the gruesome warfare and brutality of certain Native American tribes, committed pre-firestick, is often glossed over by revisionist historical views). Violence and murder come from the heart, not from firearms, swords, knives, or rocks.

This is because we live in a fallen world. One of the foundational tenets of the Christian worldview that many atheists seem to be completely ignorant of is that sin and death are a result of the fall of humanity, which happened in the Garden of Eden. God doesn’t “let bad things happen”, they happen because Adam brought sin into the world by heeding his wife’s suggestion that he do the one thing God told him not to do.

In this same vein, secularists often criticize the “thoughts and prayers” of Christian politicians, believing falsely that these thoughts and prayers are given in some sort of materialist attempt to reverse or “fix” the tragedy of gun violence. This is an understandable fallacy from someone with no spiritual life of their own.

The Only Solution

Look, I am a mother, a gun owner, a citizen of this great nation, and, to a certain extent, a pragmatist. I have high expectations for the law and order of our nation and I support enforcing strong borders, sensible gun laws, and protecting the rights of our citizenry to defend ourselves and our families.

However, as a Christian and someone who has given my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I look to His return, and His return only to permanently solve the massive problem that humanity faces.

There is nothing in this life that any one of us can do to permanently banish sin and death from this world other than give our lives to the Lord and wait for His return.

This is what it means to have faith in Him and His promises. We trust in the perfection that will be established when we at long last dwell with Him in His Kingdom, which is already being established in His Body on earth. This also means trusting in His promises that vengeance will be His, and trusting that no matter how people are punished for their crimes in their temporal lives, true Justice will come one day.

We are also called to shine His Light into the world and inform anyone we can of these promises. So while you’re forming your opinions in the wake of this tragic shooting, remember that there are people who are in desperate need of the Gospel who are still living and breathing, all over the world, right in your community and maybe even your own house.

This is faith. Much of the world doesn’t understand this, but that’s OK, Jesus told us it would be that way, in the Word of God, the same Word of God that reassures us why sin and death happen in this world and what the solution will be.

The only solution is Christ, so at the end of the day, the only answer on the lips of Christians in the wake of mass death should be Christ. Is that the solution on your lips today?

I have been writing this blog, End Times Mama, for close to four years now, and to say I’ve written sporadically would be a gross understatement.

The truth is while I have absolutely loved blogging and poured a lot of work and passion into it periodically, life and reality often got in the way and I have failed constantly to make blogging and tending to this aspiring ministry a sustainable habit.

However, despite all the obvious signs that it simply wasn’t working for me to blog/put out content on the internet, I have learned a lot about discipline, consistency, and building good habits this year and am at long last turning my attention back to this blog with a goal and a plan to make it work for the long run.

If it doesn’t, then hey, I tried, and that’s worth a lot more to me than wondering what could have happened if I’d ever worked harder at this blog.

You might notice the weird “endtimesmama.blog” address is a new thing, and that is because I couldn’t afford hosting and have to figure out what’s going on with the original endtimesmama.com URL since I am trying to switch back to self-hosted. This kind of stuff always gives me a headache, but writing doesn’t, so I figured I’d throw up a post first and take it from there.

You may notice the previous posts on my site are from years ago, that is because of this confusing hosting mix-up so I will have to figure out whether or not I want to upload old articles.

So, first goal for my new blogging plan as I sort out the other hairy details: start blogging every day.

I have so many topics I want to write about and cover between this blog, my podcast (hahahahahaha no really I do have a podcast I’ve just posted two episodes in three years), and my YouTube channel. This often actually overwhelms me to where I feel like I simply don’t have time to do any of it and so I get distracted by one of the more immediate needs in my life (of which there are many).

However, it has occurred to me recently that if I simply try to tackle something every day, it will give me more than enough to do. After working in and around blog and internet marketing over the last few years if there is one thing I have learned, it’s that content is king. And if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s blabbing about stuff I’m interested in, so even if I squeak out a little bit of content every day, that will put me in a much better position than actually thinking about it all the time.

Anyway, enough of my blabbing and if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my self-accountability post for my new personal blog challenge! LOL. Prayers are appreciated of course, that God could use my passion for blabbing about things I’m interested in to turn people towards Him and encourage end times mamas everywhere.